IGES Newsletter Issue 2 - Aberystwyth University

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NEW MEMBERS OF STAFF IGES staff continues to grow! from Professor Martin Jones (Head of Department) As part of our continued expansion as a world-class research and teaching centre in Geography and Earth Science, we are very pleased to introduce the following new staff, who joined IGES since the last Newsletter: Dr James Brasington joined IGES this January from the University of Cambridge as a Reader in Physical Geography. His academic interests focus on the development of numerical models and earth observation techniques to study and predict the behaviour of catchment and fluvial systems over a wide range of time and space scales. Geographically his research spans a diverse range of environments from the hot and dry (Iraq, California) to the warm and wet (Nepal) and the cool and humid (Scotland, New Zealand). Outside work, James is a keen hill walker, enjoys running and has recently turned to triathlon, although is struggling not to drown in the process! He is looking forward to moving from the flatlands of East Anglia to finally see some hills from his window! Professor Mathew Hannah joins IGES this summer from the University of Vermont (Burlington, Vermont, USA) as a Professor in Human Geography. Matt’s primary research interests concern the ways in which modern forms of power, knowledge and territorial organization constitute each other and underpin Western social orders. His studies have focused on the spatial prerequisites for administrative control of Native Americans by the US Government in the late 19th century, the modernization of the US Census as both a symbol and a vehicle of new forms of spatial governance during that time period, and most recently, West German Census boycott movements in the 1980s as a window on emergent forms of citizenship appropriate to the ‘Information Age’. Away from the office, he is an avid walker and near-fanatical, year-round disc golfer. Glacier Web (www.glaciers-online.net) With support from UWA’s Teaching Innovations Fund, Professor Mike Hambrey (mjh@aber.ac.uk) of IGES, has been working jointly with Dr Juerg Alean from Zurich, Switzerland, to develop an educational website about glaciers (www.glaciers-online.net). The website is based on their very successful book (Hambrey & Alean, Glaciers, Cambridge University Press) and includes most of the photographs published therein. The site is hosted by ‘SwissEduc’, which is a rapidly expanding site covering geography and other academic disciplines. It is supported by charitable foundations in Switzerland. The purpose of the website is to help secondary level and university students 4 Dr Allen Hubbard joined IGES this January as a Lecturer in Physical Geography. Allen is interested in the links between glaciers and ice sheets and global climate on a variety of temporal and spatial scales. Allen’s particular expertise focus on the collection and use of field-measurements to train high-resolution, 3D models of climate, ice sheet and geophysical dynamics to help unravel the multitude of interactions and feedbacks which govern this aspect of the earth-system and which can lead to complex, non-linear responses and rapid environmental change. Allen has been most fortunate to have been able to combine some of these research themes with a passion for highlatitude sailing and mountaineering. In the last 7 years he has been sailing off in his own steel ketch, which has taken him from the Arctic to the Antarctic and lots of very pleasant (and warm!) places in between. For those of you wondering; yes, Allen is the brother of IGES’s Dr. Bryn Hubbard, and yes they are both great glaciologists. Dr Damià Vericat joined IGES this January, from the Forestry and Technology Centre of Catalonia (Spain) as a Post-Doctoral Researcher for the Centre for Catchment and Coastal Research. Damià is a fluvial geomorphologist whose research is primarily concerned with monitoring and modelling fluvial dynamics, especially sediment transport (bedload and suspended load) in gravel bed rivers, sediment and water management in regulated rivers, and fluvial hydrology. Recently his interest was focused on macroinvertebrate drift and bedload transport interactions in gravel patchy rivers in collaboration with the University of Lleida (Catalonia, Spain), the Forestry and Technology Centre of Catalonia (Catalonia, Spain) and the University of Aberdeen (Scotland, UK). Damià’s main hobbies are mountain biking, football, enjoying nice films in cinemas, and cooking. gain a visual appreciation of glaciers, glacial landforms and sediments, and their importance in the context of climate change. Aberystwyth students are encouraged to use the site for glacier-related modules. The site is also used by university lectures world-wide to incorporate images into their own course, and some photographs have been used by BBC News Online. The website received a very positive review in the journal Science in 2005, which described it as ’a boon for visual learners’. The site continues to evolve – new additions last autumn included an illustrated glossary of glacial features, and a collection of Arctic photographers.
OFF THE BOOKSHELF ‘Fuel for Free’ Wearing his trans-disciplinary hat, engineer and postgraduate political geographer Kelvin Mason (kjm04@aber.ac.uk) has written a practical guide for small-scale brick-makers and development field workers. The guide confronts prevalent ideas of both development and the environment. Fuel For Free presents an overview of the use of wastes as fuels and case studies from the experience of ITDG/Practical Action in Peru, Zimbabwe and Sudan. ‘Benchmark paper in Hydrology’ One of Professor Tony Jones’s (jaj@ aber.ac.uk) early research papers, published in Water Resources Research, has been selected as a benchmark paper in hydrology by the International Association of Hydrological Sciences. The paper introduced soil piping to hydrological theory and proposed that flow through these subsurface pathways can make an important contribution to stormflow in rivers. Previous theory maintained that only water flowing over the surface was a significant source of flood flows in rivers. Subsequent field experiments have confirmed the hypothesis, with around 50% of discharge in part of the upper Rheidol catchment being supplied by soil pipes. The paper is one of just 31 selected papers published since the ground-breaking work of Robert Horton in 1933 that initiated modern scientific hydrology. It is reprinted in the IAHS Benchmark Papers in Hydrology Series (2006) with a commentary by Professor Keith Beven of Lancaster University. ‘Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science’ November 2006 saw the publication of the stunning 4-volume Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science, to which our own Dr Helen Roberts and Professor Ann Wintle were invited to contribute entries. Printed in colour, the encyclopedia is written by a team of leading experts in the field of Quaternary Science, and designed to be “an essential reference for scientists, students, and others” studying this important period of the last 1-2 million years of the Earth’s history. The articles are pitched at a level which makes the material accessible to undergraduate students, whilst also providing researchers with the most up-to-date information. Don’t just take our word for it though - check it out for yourself at the library (or visit http://www.books.elsevier.com/eqs). 5 ‘The Nature of the State’ Written by three members of human geography staff in IGES (Dr Mark Whitehead, Dr Rhys Jones and Professor Martin Jones), and published in the Oxford Geographical and Environmental Studies series (Oxford University Press), The Nature of the State challenges the ways in which geographers and social scientists approach the study of state-nature relations. The authors analyse different instances of statenature interaction from all over the world, considering the geo-politics of resource conflicts, the operation o f natural history museums, the organizational practices of environmental departments and ministries, the regulation of genetic science, and contemporary forms of state intervention within issues of climate change. ‘Field Techniques in Glaciology and Glacial Geomorphology’ All geography and earth science students carry out fieldwork as part of their studies, either on supervised field courses or independently as part of an extended project. Field Techniques in Glaciology and Glacial Geomorphology, by Professor Neil Glasser (nfg@aber. ac.uk) and Dr Bryn Hubbard (byh@ aber.ac.uk) of IGES, provides students with accepted and practicable field techniques for research in glaciology.
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IGES Newsletter Issue 2 - Aberystwyth University

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